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Release Notes (Geocaching® app: attribute filters) - August 31, 2020


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Release Notes (Geocaching® app: attribute filters) - August 31, 2020

 

With today’s release, Premium members can filter for caches with specific attributes on the Geocaching® app!

 

(See also our release notes on Website attribute search filters and New Attributes.)

 

Filtering by attributes helps you find caches that match your plans, abilities, and desired experience, and lets you focus on the caches that will make your cache hunt a success.

  • If you’re caching with your kids, search for “Recommended for kids”.
  • Only have an hour for caching? Search for caches with the “Takes less than one hour” attribute.
  • If you’re looking to take your kayak on a tour, consider the “Boat required” attribute.

 

The filter options include a subset of attributes that are commonly used by cache owners, as well as attributes that are most often searched for with Pocket Queries. If you filter for two or more attributes, your search results will show all caches that have all of the selected attributes.

 

For example, you could search for caches that have the attribute “Dogs allowed” and “Recommended for kids” to show all caches that are both dog friendly and kid friendly. 

 

Note that the number of search results is going to depend on the caches available in your area. If you select the attributes “Boat required” and “Night cache”, you might not see any search results if there are no night caches on islands in your area.

 

Brendan (brendanjw) and Nicole (nykkole) are watching this thread to answer questions whenever possible.
 
Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Comments unrelated to the release may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks!

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I wanted to search for caches in the android app with the attributes public restroom nearby and food available. Only to realize that they are missing in the filter. On the other side the scuba gear (I called it diving necessary first) is included.

 

Maybe it's due to the diving attribute is used in lot of power trails. But for normal caches search food and restrooms are much more useful.

Edited by peter-tvm
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3 hours ago, peter-tvm said:

I wanted to search for caches in the android app with the attributes public restroom nearby and food available. Only to realize that they are missing in the filter. On the other side the diving necessary is included.

 

Maybe it's due to the diving attribute is used in lot of power trails. But for normal caches search food and restrooms are much more useful.

What "driving attribute" are you referring to? I don't see it, and I didn't notice anything similar.

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8 minutes ago, Max and 99 said:

I'm really surprised that the app filter does not include the tourist friendly attribute.

When I'm traveling or Geocaching in a new area and using my app, that seems like a logical attribute to filter for. 

 

Are you talking about the "Recommended for tourists" attribute ?  What would make a  cache "Recommended for tourists" ?     Thanks.  :)

We've looked for large areas of green, just like we do now.  

Others might consider it simply a quick cache for souvenirs, while some are interested in an area's  history and museums.

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Yes, I posted incorrectly in the other feed, but I've got only access to 29 of the now 70 attributes available for filtering on my app.

 

Why these 29 only? Why "scuba gear required" and "may require wading" but not "may require swimming"? Or as others have mentioned, no "recommended for tourists" or "food nearby" which would be really good for quick filtering or planning a trip if COs are probably using the attributes.

 

I'm just confused why some attributes are more important than others and got listed, but ones that I might be interested in like "cliffs/falling rocks nearby" for a challenge I'm working on are excluded.

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Hi,


I just wanted to take a moment and thank you all for your replies and comments!  I'm the Product Manager on the mobile team and wanted to take a moment to comment on the general question of "why these 29 Attributes?".  Well, that is a great question.  Together with Nicole (nykkole), who is the Lead Product Manager on this Attribute feature initiative, responsible for coordinating the release across both mobile and web, we determined that for this first release we would only offer a subset of the Attributes on mobile.  The driving factor for this decision is space and affordance within the UI of the mobile app.  We looked at the benefit of delivering value to the community sooner rather than waiting developing a UI solution that would allow us to "fit" the entire set of Attributes in the app.  To determine which Attributes to host in the app, we looked at existing data related to cache owners usage of Attributes, as well as existing Pocket Query data.  We hope that this set of Attributes is a benefit to all players that would like to personalize their search options, but realize it is not inclusive of all Attributes at this time.  Ultimately, at some point in the future, we would like to update our UI, and that would allow us to feature all the Attributes that make the most sense for a mobile environment in the app at that time.  

Best,
brendanjw

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Thanks for chiming in Brendan.

I might ask one more thing though... okay, two. First, the attributes are in a single column list; that seems to inherently allow for lengthy options, and there are many attributes - it seems the perfect context to include many more if not all the attributes.  If they were laid in a grid with a limited space, I could better understand the reduced count of icons.  Perhaps the issue related to my 2nd question...

With such a long list, can you provide a means to sort them alphabetically?  They seem arbitrarily listed, some grouped based on similarity (hike distance, eg), but it'll take some time to remember the position of each attribute. If there were say a toggle to just sort them alphabetically (and sticky that setting), that may make finding the attribute you want in such a long list (ideally with all attribute options) much quicker and easier.

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